To take home the GP Gippingen 2024 And Maxim Van Gils. The Belgian of Dstny Lot he imposed himself in the Swiss classic by leading the group of around twenty units in the sprint that came to play for the day’s success at the slightly uphill finish line of Leuggern. Nothing to do about it Alberto Bettiol (EF Education-EasyPost), who had to settle for second place ahead of Roger Adrià (Bora-hansgrohe), but for the blue colors we also note the seventh place of Vincenzo Albanese and the ninth of Alexander Verres, both from Arkéa-B&B Hotels. The final sprint was characterized by a fall 100 meters from the finish he saw Thibau Nys And Andrea Bagioli (Lidl-Trek) touch each other and both end up on the ground.
The story of the race
Many attacks from the initial stages, with a first attempt by six men consisting of Fabian Lienhard And Joshua Golliker (Groupama-FDJ), Christoph Janssen And Leo Doyle (XSpeed United Continental), Sebastian Niehues (REMBE Pro Cycling Team Sauerland) e Sebastian Schoenberger (Team Felt Felbermayr) who quickly took a small lead, but was reabsorbed after about 15 kilometers of the race. New attacks lead to the formation of a new sextet, comprising Jan Stockli (Team corratec-Vini Fantini), Johan Jacobs (Swiss), Michael Kukrle (Team Felt Felbermayr) and again Niehues, Janssen and Doyle.
These attackers are initially granted an advantage of 2’30”, which then increases to over 3’30”. At that point, I am EF Education-EasyPost And Lidl Trek to move to the front of the group to begin to reduce the gap to the pacesetters, who remained five at -94 from the end when Niehues definitively lost contact. The work of the two American teams bears fruit and, having completed the fourth of seven ascents of the GPM of Rotberg, the gap drops to 1′; later, however, the platoon began to concede something again, getting closer again after the fifth climb of the GPM, when only Jacobs and Kukrle remained in command.
When even the Bora hansgrohe raises the pace, the two surviving pacesetters are reabsorbed -47 minutes from the end, just before starting the penultimate lap. The new passage from Rotberg registers several attacks, but no one actually manages to make the difference, which is instead made in the subsequent descent from Sergio Higuita (Bora-hansgrohe), Andrea Bagioli (Lidl Trek), Jan Christen (UAE Team Emirates), Mauro Schmid (Team Jayco AlUla) e Rui Costa (EF Education-EasyPost). This quintet manages to start the last round with about half a minute of advantage, but soon loses Costa under an acceleration from Christen.
However, the four surviving attackers see the group getting significantly closer in the first part of the ascent towards Rotberg and their adventure ends just before the start of the last stretch of the climb, twelve kilometers from the end. At that point, Lidl-Trek and EF Education-EasyPost try to keep a good pace to avoid sprints and sprint, but Marc Hirschi (UAE Team Emirates) doesn’t fit and goes ahead, being followed by Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost). The two are then joined by Lorenzo Rota (Intermarché-Wanty) e Finn Fisher-Black (UAE Team Emirates), but none of them make it very far as what remains of the group, around 30 men, picks them up as they enter the last five kilometres.
There is only time for a new attack by Carapaz, immediately stopped, and for another attempt by Schmid, restarted 1700 meters from the finish line, before the final sprint on a slight uphill climb, which is set by Bagioli to Thibau Nys (Lidl-Trek), which however is slow to launch the sprint. I am the one doing it Alberto Bettiol (EF Education-EasyPost) e Maxim Van Gils (Lotto Dstny), while Nys, in an attempt to follow the wheel of his compatriot, remains a bit closed between Vincenzo Albanese (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) and Bagioli and ends up pulling the latter down, falling to the ground 100 meters from the finish line. However, the fall had no effect on the result, which saw Van Gils get the better of Bettiol in the head-to-head, while the podium was completed by Roger Adrià (Bora-hansgrohe).
